Pendleton fights back for victory

06 April 2012 / 12:33

Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton advanced to the final of the women's sprint on day three of the Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne with a sensational come-from-behind semi-final win over defending champion Anna Meares.

Pendleton, world champion in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, lost control and crashed in the first bout - suffering track burn to her right shoulder, elbow and hip - before being granted a reprieve in the second as Meares was adjudged to have impeded her opponent by going outside the sprinters' lane.

The officials' decision set up a deciding contest, which Meares led out on the last of three laps, but Pendleton responded by accelerating around her rival and won in a photo-finish.

The victory saw Pendleton progress to meet Lithuania's Simona Krupeckaite in the battle for gold and kept alive her streak of winning a medal at every World Championships since 2005. At the 2004 event in Melbourne she was fourth.

In the second semi-final Krupeckaite claimed a 2-0 win over Ukraine's Lyubov Shulika, who will now meet Meares in the ride-off for bronze.